


as if death itself was undone

by arrows (orphan_account)



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Zombies, F/M, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parallel Universes, Walking in the Desert at Night Without a Fully Charged Flashlight, Zombie!Everyone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 01:09:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/668531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/arrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy and Clint make a Poptart run and everything goes insane. As in, zombie parallel universes insane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Are you kidding me?" Darcy slams her hand down on the steering wheel and looks over at Clint, who is sitting in the passenger seat laughing.

"Why the fuck are you laughing? We just broke down in the middle of the desert. What's funny about that?" 

Clint takes a deep breath and calms down before replying. "We can just walk. It's only a few miles back to town."

Darcy pulls out her phone. "No signal, of fucking course. But it's already eight; we can't walk that far before it gets dark."

He rolls his eyes and opens the car door. "We're sure as hell not waiting here until someone comes. It's the middle of the desert. Besides, we've got a flashlight. Not like a lion is gonna come eat us."

She sighs and opens her door, grabbing the flashlight from the backseat. "Fine, but if we die it's all your fault."

"Okay, I'm fine with that."

"And I want my gravestone to say 'here lies Darcy Lewis. It was Clint's fault."

"Alright. I'll bring my bow if it makes you feel better."

"Who the hell brings a bow to go grocery shopping?! Y'know what, whatever, yeah, bring it."

They get out and start walking. Darcy learns that it's much more than a few miles, and by mile four she's ready to curl up in bed and take a nap for the rest of the year.

"Can we stop now?" She's not whining, nope, not at all. Just trying to convince him to stop.

"...We've only gone halfway, Darce." He smirks at her and keeps walking, a little slower than before. She groans and continues.

The sun has gone down, and their flashlight is hanging onto the last bit of its batteries, flickering every few seconds. They're alone, still no cell signal, with only the cacti to keep them company.

"This was just supposed to be a quick grocery store trip, dammit! Why is there nowhere to get Poptarts in town?"

Clint rolls his eyes again. "Because the universe hates you, obviously."

Then, as if to prove Clint's point, the flashlight goes out, and he's 95% sure Darcy's scream of "Are you fucking serious?!" could be heard across the desert. And possibly in Nebraska. And Wales.

"C'mon Darce, lets just keep going."

"No way. I am not walking in the dark in the middle of nowhere. We could get murdered by a hobo with a chainsaw!" She sits on the ground to prove her point. She is _so_ not moving.

"Fine, wake me up when we get rescued. You're on watch, don't fall asleep. you gotta warn me if a hobo with a chainsaw comes, k?" Clint sets his bow down and curls up on the ground, and oh that's gonna be uncomfortable later when he has sand everywhere but he's more tired than he wants to admit.

She bites her lip to keep from smiling and nods. He's asleep within two minutes.

A few hours pass, and though Darcy is exhausted she stays awake. Not that she actually thinks a guy with a chainsaw is coming. But just in case.

It's five in the morning and the sun is just starting to come up when it starts. She's a little less than half asleep, maybe three-eighths, and she hears slow footsteps coming towards them. The sound echoes around the desert and bounces off the billion-and-one stars overhead. She stands up and starts waving her arms, whoever it is is just a speck against the horizon right now. "Hellooooo!"

She hears a small sound, barely audible at this distance, but it's a sound and she supposes that's what matters.

Darcy waves her arms for a few more minutes before sitting back down. "Hey. Clint." She snaps her fingers in front of his face a few times.

"Mmhm?" "There's someone coming.."

Clint sits up quickly and brushes the sand off his clothes, looking at the speck that's slowly growing closer.

After a few minutes, the speck has only grown a tiny bit, and Darcy grows impatient. "Hey, you! Wanna walk faster?!"

Clint sighs. "Don't be rude."

A half hour passes and the person is almost halfway to them. They can hear sounds coming from that direction now, a sort of moaning sound. "What the hell?" Darcy asks. Clint shrugs.

The moaning gets louder as the person gets closer, and both of them stand up. Clint grabs his bow and Darcy pulls her tazer out of her purse. The woman is almost to them, and they can see discolored splotches on her skin, sickly green with some bluish and brown-red in spots.

"Wow, that's some kick ass zombie makeup, dude!" Darcy yells.

The woman moans again, louder, then makes a sound that isn't quite human. More like a hyena combined with an eagle, with some cat falling off the Eiffel Tower mixed in. "Darce... I don't think it's makeup." Darcy gulps and takes a step back.

The person, er, _zombie_ , is only a few yards away now and Clint has an arrow aimed at its heart. "...Clint... does the flesh eating undead creature over there remind you of someone..?"


	2. Chapter 2

Clint looks closer, and sure enough, the zombie has bright red hair with dirt and sand strewn through it, and blue eyes, much duller now than the last time he saw her, but still recognizable. He supposes death would do that to a person, make them less vibrant. His arm holding the bow drops a little and the arrow he had strung comes loose.

“Tasha?”

Natasha moans again in reply, and it sounds almost like she’s saying Clint’s name. Clint takes a few slow steps towards her and Darcy grabs his arm, pulling him back to her. Natasha’s face twists into dejection before shifting into a sneer, and she steps clumsily towards them.

Darcy looks between Clint and Natasha… No, thinking of her as Nat isn’t helping, Darcy thinks; better to think of her as the zombie. She turns to Clint and says quietly, “Clint. She’s not Nat. It’s a zombie. You gotta shoot it. It isn’t Natasha. She woulda wanted you to shoot.”

His hand drops some more as the zombie gets closer. “Clint. Please. I really don’t feel like dying today. And to be honest, zombies, not really the way I wanna go. Zombies are cool and all, it’s just--”She realizes she’s babbling and stops. He closes his eyes and brings his bow up to Natasha’s head, pulls the arrow back, and fires.

It hits her between the eyes and sinks into her skull, and she drops to the ground with a sickening squish sound. 

Darcy squeezes her eyes shut and tries to forget the sound, but it isn’t something she’ll ever be able to forget. Clint looks down at Natasha, a few tears leaking out of his eyes. “I… Jesus fuck, Tasha.”

Darcy holds his hand comfortingly. “Maybe we should keep walking…” Clint nods and lets her lead him away, back to the road. They’ve still got a while to go before they get back to town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, it just felt like it should end there. I'll try to write another one tomorrow if I don't have much homework. ♥ Thanks for reading, commenting, kuddos-ing, etc.!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More zombies, more walking, and Jane Foster appears!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 2-5-13: There might not be a new chapter up for a few days. I'm not feeling very good and I'm going to Georgia Thursday to Sunday and I probably won't be able to update then. I'll try to get one in tomorrow if possible. Sorry!

“So… We leave for an hour, come back, and boom! Zombies everywhere.”

Darcy breaks the silence, after an hour or two since the first zombie. They’ve kept walking, running into a few zombies, but thank god nobody they recognized. Clint shoots them neatly between the eyes every time and they move on, trying to erase the pictures from their minds. 

Clint nods absentmindedly. He’s obviously still trying to forget about Nat, but the funny thing about trying to forget about something is you end up thinking about it more. 

“No, but seriously. Where did the zombies even come from?” She’s curious, and completely ignoring the side of her brain reminding her what curiosity did to that cat. She’s never liked cats anyways. 

“How am I supposed to know?” Clint snaps. 

“Somebody’s grumpy…” Darcy mumbles. She sees a police station up ahead and glances around it looking for zombies, and when there aren’t any visible, she runs towards it. 

Clint chases her, yelling “Dammit Lewis, wait for me!” She turns around for a second, long enough to yell back, “There might be someone in there to tell us what’s happening. Come on!” and keeps running. 

She stops at the door and looks through the glass; it’s stained with sand and dirt and doesn’t look like it’s been used in a few months. She dusts off the handle and pulls it open slowly. “Hello? Anyone home?” Her voice echoes in the empty space. 

Clint catches up to her and pushes her gently back outside the building. “I’ll go in first. Don’t want you to get hurt if anything is here.” Darcy’s a little offended that he thinks she can’t defend herself, but she’s seen how good he is with a bow, and knows he could protect them better than she could, so she lets him step in front of her. 

Clint looks around carefully. “Hey, anybody here?” He waits a few seconds and turns back to Darcy. “Looks like no one’s here. We can search the place for supplies, though.” 

They split up to look for food and guns. Darcy found the kitchen and shoved various canned foods into a backpack. Clint ran into a safe, easy to crack open, full of guns. He grabbed three, plus some extra bullets. 

They meet back in the lobby after looking around some more. Darcy pulls a pack of post-its and a pen out of her pocket, “Just in case somebody else comes, we should try to help them, right?” she explains, and writes a short letter. ‘Dear whoever reads this: in case you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting them yet, beware, there’s zombies here. Grab a couple guns and some food while you’re here. Good luck, hope you survive! :-) –Darcy Lewis & Clint Barton’ Clint rolls his eyes when she forces him to sign it. There’s obviously nobody else here they’ve probably all been zombified by now, so what’s the point? 

They take a small break to eat and keep going, walking in silence again but not running into any more zombies. They see the town in the distance after half an hour and quicken their pace. There are more zombies as they approach, three or four that they can see, but they avoid them; both are too tired to fight right now and they’re not sure that they can hold that many off by themselves. 

The town looks deserted, the road dusty and the buildings boarded up. Clint and Darcy look around, there doesn’t seem to be any more people. They hear a moaning noise from the alleyway next to the convenience store; Clint turns sharply and pulls his gun out and shoots towards the noise. The zombie doesn’t come out, so he assumes it either turned around or died. Doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s not trying to eat them. 

A few minutes pass and Darcy and Clint sit down by a fountain. The little bit of water trickling out runs red, reflecting the setting sun. A head peeks out of a storm cellar across the street, dirty brown hair and wide eyes which grow even bigger upon seeing them. “Darcy?” 

“Ohmygod Jane!” Darcy runs over to her before Clint can tell her to stop. Jane climbs quickly out of the storm cellar and pulls Darcy into a tight hug, tears streaming down her face. “Darcy? But… how? I-I saw the Z’s get you…”

Darcy pulls back a little and looks at her. “What? Jane, we just went to get Poptarts.” She forces a little laugh but it dies as soon as it reaches the air. 

“No, no, I saw you, a month ago; you were one of the first ones they got!” Jane’s nearly hysterical now, and Darcy is extremely confused. 

“Did you inhale the wrong chemicals again, boss? We left yesterday to get some more food, since your boyfriend ate it all, and the van broke down and we’re walking back and zombies appeared! Actual zombies, at first I thought it was just makeup but nope, real zombies! What the hell?” 

Jane notices Clint and looks at him for a long time. “The Z’s got you too, I saw it, I swear! Here, there’s some more of us hiding down here, lets go back before they find us.” She gestures to the cellar door, and Clint and Darcy are all too happy to follow her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got the whole plot mapped out now, so updates should be pretty regular, every couple days probably. There'll be around 14-17 chapters total, and around 15-20k words. I'm planning to bring in lots of characters, both movie-verse and comic-verse. Thanks so much for reading, please comment and tell me what you think!  
> Also, a note: All my zombie terminology comes from [this website](http://zombie.wikia.com). I'm not really a zombie expert, so sorry if something doesn't fit.  
> Note #2: Jane calls the zombies Z's because some of her companions (who will show up in the next chapter) though it sounded cooler than calling them zombies.
> 
> Thanks again for reading, and I really hope you guys like what I ave planned!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for being late posting this. I was sick, then I went to Atlanta for a few days, and I've had tons of homework. to make up for it, two chapters today! A few more characters introduced here, hopefully I didn't screw up anyone's characterization too much. Comment and tell me what you think?

They enter a damp room, with only a few light bulbs hanging loose from the ceiling. It’s littered with beakers and pieces of machines that Darcy can’t make out entirely. Some of them look a little like guns, or possibly death rays, but she’s not sure.

There are three others in the room, plus Jane, Clint, and herself. She recognizes one as Tony Stark, because really, who wouldn’t recognize Iron Man? The other two men look vaguely familiar, she guesses they’re more superhero types. She knows she saw one on the news after the New York incident, the man with dark curly hair and a round face and glasses who’s working with chemicals. The other, standing next to Stark with blond hair going in every direction, is unfamiliar, but she’s pretty sure he’s something to do with insects if his shirt and the empty ant farm next to him is any indication. She looks closer at him and notices a small woman with wings flitting around him. That must be the Wasp, she thinks, which would make the blond man Ant-Man. 

The four others look up at them, hands reaching for weapons at their sides before they see that the three standing at the door are not, in fact, members of the undead club. Darcy smiles weakly and waves a little, saying “Hey guys,” loud enough for everyone to hear. The three men nod at her, the curly-haired one smiling a bit before going back to his work. He’s mixing chemicals carefully, and Jane walks over and helps him. “We’re working on a cure, it’s not really working so far though,” Jane explains. 

She motions towards the man and looks at Darcy. “This is Dr. Bruce Banner. Bruce, this is Darcy, my assistant.” Bruce looks up and smiles at her again distractedly. His smile is almost contagious, and she ends up grinning back before Clint pokes her side to remind her that they’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. She looks down, still grinning but at least trying to hide it. 

Jane motions to the other two men, working on some mechanical… stuff, for lack of a better word. Darcy doesn’t know much about engineering or weapon making, and that seems to be what they’re doing. 

“Over there is Tony and Hank. They’re working on weapons to fight the Z’s.” Tony raises a hand in some pathetic excuse for a wave, too focused on his work to offer even a simple greeting. Hank looks up at her. “Sorry about Tony. He’s kinda an ass.” 

The Wasp flies toward Darcy and sits on her shoulder. “Hey! I’m Janet. You can call me Jan.” She’s cheery despite the destruction happening outside, and despite the fact that one of her wings has a tear in it that’s been haphazardly held together by masking tape. 

“I’m Darcy,” she says quietly, not wanting to hurt the smaller woman’s ears by being too loud. She sits down in a rickety chair in the corner. Clint is still standing at the door, bow in hand; though Bruce has told him a few times he can go sit down. Darcy has to get up and pull him over to get him to sit down with her. 

After an hour Janet goes back to help Hank, and a little while later Darcy and Clint have resorted to reading the old science texts that line the wall. Jane walks over just as Darcy reaches the section on thermonuclear physics, pulling over a stool and sitting with them. 

“Tony found a blip on the radar in the direction you guys were walking from. Did you see anything weird while you were driving here? Like a portal?” 

Darcy looks at Clint and shakes her head. “No portals here.” 

Clint thinks for a second, his forehead creasing in thought. “There was that weird ripple in the road, remember?” 

Darcy nods. “Oh yeah! I figured it was just a mirage. Or lack of sleep.” 

Jane’s face brightens and Darcy can see the gears turning in her head. “That’s it!” she exclaims. “Okay, the theory is that you’re from an alternate dimension - I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s happened before. If Richards was here he could help get you back, but he’s still in New York.” 

“Isn’t New York covered in zombies too?” Darcy asks. 

“We assume SHIELD has the city under control.”Tony jumps into the conversation. “Though knowing them, they’re probably holed up in their base hiding.” 

“And what exactly do you think we’re doing?” Bruce joins. 

“Strategically planning our next step.” Tony states. 

“We’re hiding, Tony. We’ve been made no better than anyone else, just waiting till the Z’s break in and kill us. We aren’t going to find a cure; we aren’t going to defeat them! You know that!” Bruce’s eyes flash green and Darcy steps back and bumps into the chair, instinctively knowing she doesn’t want to be around Dr. Banner when he gets mad. Ah, so that’s who he is. The Hulk. She wonders why she didn’t guess that before. 

Jane moves quickly to Bruce and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Don’t get mad. We can’t afford to lose all this research. We’re close, Bruce, you need to believe that we’ll figure this out.” She looks apologetically back to Darcy and Clint. 

“So, alternate dimension. Makes sense. Except that means _my_ Darcy really is dead…” Jane looks down, tears welling in her eyes again. She blinks them back quickly, and Darcy walks over and gives her a quick hug. Jane shakes her head and wipes a hand across her eyes. “I’m okay. Anyways, I guess you’re wondering how the whole zombie apocalypse thing happened?” Darcy nods and Jane continues. “Well, it started like this…”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback from Jane's POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clear something up:  
> In Darcy and Clint's universe, it's a few weeks after the Avengers movie, and Clint was there with a few other SHIELD agents to help Jane get her stuff back on track after being moved during the timeframe of Avengers.  
> In zombie universe, it's about a year after that, and Jane has become a pretty well known scientist. This flashback takes place about 6 months before the rest of the story.
> 
> Also, thanks so much to [Cindyck](http://tiercel.tumblr.com) for reading through this and helping me! Love ya Cindyck!

Jane stood in the middle of the room and looked around in awe. To be honest, she was only there because she’d heard Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, two of her science idols, had also been invited. Darcy had been left at Jane's lab; she would’ve been bored out of her mind here. Jane wasn’t exactly an expert in gamma radiation, and she wasn’t really sure why she was invited in the first place, but you know what they say about looking gift horses in the mouth.

Stark was in the middle of the room as always, the center of attention even though this wasn’t his field of expertise either. Banner stood against the wall, arms crossed and looking genuinely uncomfortable. Jane walked over to him and smiled. 

“Hi, I’m Jane.” She held a hand out to shake and he took it cautiously. “’m Bruce. Nice to meet you,” he mumbled. 

A voice came over the microphone and they turned their attention to the center of the room, where Stark had left and a table was set up behind some glass. 

“We’re gonna ask you all to go back into our viewing room for a little while so we can do this demonstration, kay?” The voice drawled with a Texas accent like honey. Bruce and Jane walked side by side to the adjoining room, which had one glass wall to look through. 

The demonstration started, a few more layers of protective walls moved between the watchers and the scientists conducting the experiment. Jane watched Bruce more than the experiment; she noticed how cautious he was and how uncomfortable he seemed. She guessed that Stark had dragged him along. She’s heard of his accident, and wow, it must’ve been really hard for him to be there at a gamma presentation of all things. 

Jane was so focused on analyzing Dr. Banner that she didn’t notice the panicked look on the scientist’s face, masked quickly so as not to cause terror. She looked back to the demonstration just in time for the explosion. 

She was thrown backwards; eyes squeezed shut against the bright heat. Ow. That was gonna hurt later, but for now she was more focused on getting away from the explosion. She looked up, there were pieces of the ceiling and walls and broken glass everywhere, but nobody seemed badly hurt. 

She stood up and stumbled over to Bruce, who was lying on the ground fighting with himself, trying not to change into the Hulk. She grabbed his hand and helped him stand up, whispering nonsense to him to calm him down. They got out of the building, grabbing a first aid kit on the way, running around fallen plaster until they could taste the fresh air. 

They sat down on a bench on the outskirts of the facility to catch their breath. A few more joined them: Tony Stark, Hank Pym and his wife Janet. It was then that they saw it: at first, it looked like more people were stumbling out of the building, nothing too shocking. As the people got closer, however, Jane noticed that they were walking strangely, and their skin looked weird. 

Bruce was passed out on the bench; Janet had turned small and was curled up next to him. Jane took a few steps towards the people approaching. “Hey! You guys need first aid?” she yelled. They didn’t answer. 

When the people were halfway to their little group, Jane could see what made them look so strange from a distance up close. Their skin was pale, like someone who had recently died. Their bones were stiff when they moved, their eyes were dull and staring straight ahead. It was, well, creepy to say the least, and Jane got the feeling she should get out of there. She looked at Tony. He was staring straight ahead, and she started to fear there was something wrong with him too before he suddenly sprung into action. 

“We gotta go, wake Bruce up, I’ll grab a car. I’ve got the briefcase suit with me,” he motioned to the briefcase he’d been carrying and started getting the Iron Man armor out of it and putting it on; “Hank and Jan and Bruce should be able to keep you safe till I get back.” 

She mumbled something about not needing protection but he was gone, the suit put on while he was talking. Bruce was awake now, and was standing next to her. The strange people were almost there, moving slowly but moving nonetheless. 

Bruce, Hank, and Janet formed a wall in front of Jane, despite her protests. Bruce looked back at her, trying to be reassuring. “Listen, this is the kind of thing that caused my accident. I assume you heard about that and how fantastically that turned out.” His voice was laced with sarcasm, but he got serious quickly. “We’ll protect you. You’re just a civilian, not to be mean, but you can’t protect yourself as well as we can.” She nodded and stepped back. 

Thankfully, Tony got back before the people reached them, with a SHIELD-issued car big enough for all of them to fit. They piled in and shut the doors just as the people reached them, from this close they could all see that they didn’t look very… alive. Jane was hesitant to suggest the undead as an explanation, but with all the other weird shit that had happened to her, it wasn’t that far out of the realm of possibility. 

As they drove back to Jane’s lab, the closest safe place they could talk, the creatures followed them. 

Darcy had been waiting at the lab, and they caught her up pretty quickly. The scientists discussed the explosion and what came after and she messed around on her laptop until they had use of her (which they didn’t, other than small tasks, but she didn’t really mind. Gave her more time on tumblr.) 

A few days later, when they ran out of food, Tony went out of Jane’s lab to go to the drugstore and grab some snacks. It wasn’t his choice, but he’d eaten most of the food, so the rest insisted. It was his choice to stay in the lab for days. (“Too small,” he’d said, “How the hell do you fit equipment in here? Even SHIELD has better labs than this. But we should probably stay for a few days. Just in case the zombies - can we all agree they were zombies? – made their way this far.”) 

He was back pretty quickly, out of breath with armfuls of food. “They followed us, and most of the people here are dead. Or undead.” 

Commotion ensued, and nobody was really sure what was happening. Jane wanted to get a sample from one of the zombie’s skin, Tony was insisting they call them “Z’s” (“much more badass” was his reasoning), Darcy was tweeting about the zombies and warning people, and Bruce was just trying not to Hulk out with all the chaos. 

It was so chaotic that they didn’t notice a lone Z enter the lab through the door Tony had forgotten to re-lock. Darcy was closest to the door and the Z grabbed her quickly, scratching her arm when she screamed. The scientists picked up weapons and shot at it, but a few bullets went away from their target and hit Darcy, just making her scream louder. 

The Z’s scratch turned discolored and the paleness spread through Darcy’s arm in a few minutes. Her screams quieted and she cried quietly. No matter how many bullets lodged into the Z, it simply would not die. 

Janet got a lucky shot into the Z’s skull, right between its eyes, and it stood still for a full minute before dropping. Janet and Tony cheered, before noticing that Darcy was still sobbing. The paleness had spread to the edge of her face and she looked up t the scientists, her mouth moving in slow motion but no words escaping. She mouthed through her tears “shoot me” but none did. 

The colorlessness spread through her body as they watched, and she stared ahead with blank eyes for fifteen minutes while Jane tried desperately to fix her. Darcy was unresponsive; her skin turned cold. After Jane had given up and stepped back with the others, Darcy finally moved. Her motions were slow, too slow, like a Z. 

That was when Jane raised her gun and took a shot. It landed in Darcy’s skull and she fell off the chair as Jane started to cry. 

Tony dragged the two Z bodies outside and left them for wild animals to eat. There were more attacks in the next few months, but they knew now what to do, and they took care of the Z’s that entered and left the ones outside alone. They seldom left Jane’s lab, only when they needed more food. There were more Z’s every time they looked. Hank and Tony began to build weapons to fight, while Bruce and Jane worked on finding a cure, Janet helping wherever she could and keeping spirits as light as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment if you like it, please! I'll try to have the next chapter up soon.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry it took so long, almost 2 months to get this chapter done. Life has been crazy lately. I'll try to have the next one up sooner, but no promises.
> 
> Also! I tagged this as Clint/Darcy but that part won't be coming in till later. though you see some hints at it here, but really Clint is the only one of the group that Darcy knows (aside from Jane, but y'know. Alternate universe and all that so.)  
> But it will be there, I promise!

Darcy stares at Jane in awe and sympathy. A similar expression settles on Clint’s face; the Avengers have certainly faced some weird shit but this is just strange. Zombies have always been something reserved for video games and movies.

Tony claps his hands after a few minutes, breaking the silence. “Well, after that wonderful retelling of how we got to this point, anyone else hungry?” He picks up a bag of blueberries from a table and turns around in a half-circle, holding the bag out to everyone. Jane grabbed a few and popped them into her mouth. Her emotions are running wild from re-experiencing everything that had happened, everyone in the room could tell. Food always helped her with, well, anything really. She grabbed a few more almost as an afterthought and sat on top of the counter, in one of the few spots not covered with science tools. Jan flits over to sit on Jane’s shoulder, smiling at her. 

“So what do we do now?” Darcy asks, leaning against the table in the middle of the room and looking around at everyone. 

“We keep going with what we’ve been doing,” Bruce replies softly. “Jane and I will work on a cure, Tony and Hank will make weapons that we all pray we don’t have to use. We just keep moving.” 

“Summary: we sit and wait to die.” There is venom in his voice as Tony says the words, and his eyes are hard and cold. 

“Nope. Nopenopenopenope so much nope.” Darcy replies, standing up a bit straighter, completely prepared to go Enjorlas on their asses. As in, lead them in battle. “Tony, Hank; keep making those weapons. Jane and Bruce, keep working on a cure, try everything you can.” She says, pointing at them as she goes. “Me and Jan will keep spirits high. But we can’t give up, we are not going to do _that_.”

“Who the hell made you the leader?” Tony asks defiantly, to which Darcy responds “Well you sure as hell weren’t doing any good without one” and Jane says “Tony, just let her go, she knows what she’s doing. Kind of.” Tony glareds, but goes to work, putting the parts together quickly until it vaguely resembles something useful. 

They worked in silence for a few hours, Jan or Darcy taking turns trying to cheer everyone up. They sing songs and tell jokes, but the scientists are too focused to pay them much. In the middle of a very loud retelling of every Disney movie ever, mashed up, plus music; the door creaks open. 

Everyone drops what they’re doing right away, a clang sounding out through the room as the metal and plastic falls to the floor. They look simultaneously to the door, afraid of what they will see. And oh god, it’s a Z, and there’s more behind it, and none of Tony and Hank’s weapons have been tested yet, and Darcy’s gun is on the other side of the room and maybe she can reach it, maybe, but probably not and--. 

Breathe, she reminds herself, breathe. She might get out of this alive. Maybe. 

The Z walks slowly into the room, looking around as some of the more green parts of its skin flake off. It’s obviously been dead for some time, and none of them can tell if it’s anyone they knew. The others follow, a bit more slowly. The first is obviously the leader. 

It’s the first time any of them have heard of an organized group of Z’s, and it scares them all half to death. 

Tony picks up a half-finished gun and aims it, pressing a few buttons. They hold a collective breath as they wait for something to happen, but… it doesn’t. “Shitshitshiiiit.” He whispers as they move towards the back wall as a group. 

Darcy walks sideways instead of backwards, putting herself next to Clint. Her eyes are shining with fear and she gets as close as she can to him. Standing on her toes, she whispers in his ear, “Can’t you shoot at them?” gesturing to the bow strapped over his back. 

“Too small a space,” he whispers back, frowning. “The arrows would go all over, might hit one of us.” She nods and looks towards the others. “Isn’t there another exit?” She asks desperately. 

“Nope, just the one.” Jane replies, and all the hope drains out of Darcy’s face. The Z’s are close, too close, way too close to feel at all safe. She squishes even closer to Clint and buries her face in his shoulder. 

Bruce moves forward, eyes flashing bright green. He looks back to the rest of the group and gives them a sad smile. “The other guy might be able to help.” Tony moves forward, his mouth open and ready to yell a strangled “No”, but Bruce shakes his head, a minute gesture that holds the other man back. “I have to try, Tony.” 

Tony moves back, arms held out and corralling everyone else to the back of the room as Bruce’s skin starts changing, turning green as his muscles bulge and stretch beneath his skin in a way that doesn’t seem right. 

The transformation finishes just as the first Z reaches him and reaches out a slow arm. “Hulk smash Zeees?” Hulk booms, looking back at the others for confirmation. They nod quickly. 

Darcy looks up from where her head rests on Clint’s arm to watch and the next five minutes are a blur in her mind. 

Hulk raises a fist to smash the Z. The Z reaches out with its claws. Hulk brings the fist down, Z raises the claws up and scratches Hulk’s hand, before headbutting it and pushing the Hulk a few inches back. This, apparently, was enough to change the Hulk. It’s a lot faster than what Jane described for the other Darcy, only takes a minute, maybe two, that creep by slower than should be possible. 

The Hulk turns to the huddled group of scientists and friends with an angry sneer. His skin has taken on a mossy texture added to the green, his fingers sharpened into claws. “Fuck,” is Tony’s quiet whisper, met with complete agreement from the rest of the group. 

As the creature that used to be Bruce walks toward them, one thought echoes through Darcy’s mind: they’re totally and completely screwed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and tell me what you think please! Sorrynotsorry for the cliffhanger.


	7. swiggity swinished this remains unfinished

just a note to let anyone following this fic know that i'm not planning on finishing it and i'm really sorry  
bye


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